


Parapines Fluff

by OrbManson7



Category: Parapines - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Parapines
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-21
Updated: 2014-04-21
Packaged: 2018-01-20 06:48:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1500824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrbManson7/pseuds/OrbManson7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of old fanfiction posted on my tumblr; some were requests, some were just written out of boredom. Enjoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (So look what i found hidden in the deep archives of my ipod notes! I checked my tumblr and ff.net account, but i guess i never posted this short little drabble anywhere, so HAVE SOME FLUFFY PARAPINES that i actually wrote over a year ago—the timestamp says september 2012, wow—and consider it a christmas present…that has nothing to do with christmas, whoops)
> 
> Parapines Fluff

 

* * *

He knew he wasn’t going to last much longer. His eyes kept drooping before he forced them open again. He tried to keep his mind occupied with Norman’s story, but his eyes kept wandering to his lips as they moved and rarely smiled.  
“Dipper?”  
Dipper’s eyes widened, and he quickly glanced around for a moment before looking back at Norman. He seemed worried, his eyebrows scrunched together in concern.  
“Huh? What?”  
He blinked rapidly before grinning sheepishly and sitting up. Maybe staying up and watching as many monster movies as possible wasn’t such a great idea after all?  
Norman just gave him his usual lopsided smile, asking,  
“Are you really that tired?”  
Dipper looked at the bags under Norman’s eyes, remembering that he always has those there. He must be used to staying up this late…  
“Nah…” Dipper yawned into his hand, “Not a bit.”  
Norman laughed, but quietly—as to not wake Mabel, who was sleeping on her bed. The boys were holed up in their not-so-masterly blanket fort, and it was nearing three AM.  
They had gone through a total of eight movies before finally calling it quits, but the two of them had taken the last sodas out of the fridge while Mabel was sleeping, and here they were, telling random stories… or, at least, that’s what Norman was doing, in his ridiculously quiet voice. Dipper was simply attempting to stay awake to listen.  
His eyelids drooped closed, but quickly shot back open. Norman had glanced away. His eyes fell closed again, and he reached up to rub his eyes. When he opened them again, Norman was looking right at him.  
“Uhh…” Dipper just sort of stared back before another yawn caused him to close his eyes again. This time, his eyelids were harder to open. When they did, in fact, open, Norman was still looking at him…but he was closer. Honestly, he wouldn’t have noticed if Norman hadn’t scooted even closer.  
“Come here,” he told Dipper, gesturing for him to lie down. But, you know, in his lap. Dipper just sort of looked down hazily for a while before deciding it didn’t matter how he felt about it. He plopped down on Norman’s skinny legs, lazily gazing up at him.  
Norman just gave his lopsided smile again, hoping the little light in the room would make the ever-growing blush on his face hard to see.  
“Why do you do that?” Dipper asked, his eyes glued to Norman’s grinning lips.  
Norman glanced down, confused,  
“Why do I do what?”  
Dipper closed his eyes, turning on his side as he replied,  
“You know… uhh, you smile—when you smile, you don’t do it…all the way.”  
Norman furrowed his eyebrows again,  
“What are you talking about?” he asked. He smiled, wasn’t that enough?  
“When I smile, I, like, show my teeth,” Dipper replied sleepily, his eyes still closed. He yawned loudly, adjusting and rubbing his face against the inside of Norman’s leg.  
Norman bit his lip,  
“Th-that’s not…” he grasped for words, “I don’t have to… besides, my teeth are all crooked anyway.”  
Dipper smiled quickly,  
“Yeah, okay,” he quipped lazily. “I like it more when you smile that way.”  
Norman blinked, unsure what he could mean by that. He bit his lip and looked back down, but before he could ask, Dipper had already fallen asleep.  
“I’ll try,” he whispered, pulling his head back up. “I guess…”

* * *

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fanfiction Challenge: #22 Memories
> 
> (I started writing this before the challenge list came up, but it fell under one of the prompts, so I figured I could still post it.)

It was quiet for almost a whole week. Dipper remembered that he had been bored, and he remembered sitting outside, even though it was ridiculously hot.

"That’s good. Do you remember what day that was?"

"Uhh…" Dipper tried to remember, but he told the doctor that he wasn’t sure.

Norman frowned. What had he done? He let Dipper go down that path alone, even though nearly six different ghosts told him to stay away from there. He shouldn’t have given in to Dipper’s pleas about properly investigating and uncovering the unknown. This was the last time he let Dipper do anything alone.

He glanced at Mabel, who was standing on a chair so she could see out the tiny window in the hospital room. He couldn’t even imagine what she was thinking about all this. Granted, she might not be thinking at all, given the look on her face. It was as though she was doing everything to not interact with her brother since they realized he had amnesia.

"Do you know which month it is?" the doctor asked calmly. Dipper sighed,

"July. I know it’s July."

Suddenly, he perked up,

"It’s July 17th, right?"

The doctor smiled,

"Yes, it is. Very good."

The doctor turned to Mabel, even though she had her back turned to him.

"Miss Pines, would you like to try talking to him? He seems to remember the basics just fine, but we should make sure he can recognize family…"

Mabel turned and jumped down from the chair. For the first time, Norman realized Mabel wasn’t smiling.

"Hey, Dipper!" she said in her usual voice, but her face remained smile-less.

The doctor turned back to Dipper, calmly explaining,

"This is your sister, Mabel."

Dipper stared at her for a few seconds, and then turned to the doctor, asking,

"Are you sure?"

Mabel frowned,

"Dipper! We’re  _twins_!  _Of course, I’m your sister_!”

Dipper seemed uncomfortable from the sudden shouting, but he remained rather calm. That was likely the strangest thing about this situation, in fact. Norman stood up, joining Mabel,

"It’s true that you’re t-twins, you know," he told him, "You two look a lot alike."

Dipper scrunched his eyebrows together, looking at Norman in a way that made everything feel so much worse than it already did. He didn’t recognize him, but what was terrible was that he was judging him and he knew it. He was looking at his supposed sister and friend and thinking that they must be crazy.

"This isn’t very uncommon," the doctor noted. He told them that Dipper was suffering from a very mild and nearly acute form of amnesia. He explained that he’d likely get his memory back in no time, anywhere from hours to days.

"If he has trouble remembering anything he currently recalls, or he isn’t back to his old self again in at least one week, send him back here and we’ll do some tests. Okay?"

Mabel and Norman both nodded in response.

"Now, here are his papers," the doctor handed them a pink piece of paper, which Mabel took, "And you can take Dipper and your…uncle to the front desk and they’ll check you out."

Dipper slid down off the hospital bed, and headed out the door. Mabel ran to catch up, but Norman just followed them slowly. Grunkle Stan grumbled from the hallway about the bill for “just telling us the obvious” and they promptly made their way back to the Mystery Shack.

Dipper remembered the store and where his room was, but he seemed confused at the fact that there was another bed and a sleeping bag between the two.

Norman silently watched as Mabel attempted in vain to bring up random past memories, some of them very personal, and he instantly felt out of place. He felt like he shouldn’t be there at all. Would sleeping in the same room as Dipper confuse him? Would it freak him out?

He caught Dipper’s eye as he realized he’d been staring.

"What?" Dipper asked, almost sounding rude.

Norman wished everything would return to normal. He shifted where he stood, his hands clenching at the insides of his sleeves.

"N-nothing," he replied, looking down at the attic floor.

"M-mabel?"

Mabel turned around, and Norman grimaced at the realization that she still wasn’t smiling.

"I’m gonna— I mean, if it’s okay, I’ll just take my stuff and, you know, sleep downstairs…"

He expected Mabel to nod in understanding, or maybe Dipper to ask why he would even have slept up here in the first place. But he hadn’t expected a sudden “No!” from Dipper, let alone the nervous look on his face once the other two looked at him in confusion.

"Wha—what’s wrong?" Norman asked, clearly unsure why Dipper’s behavior seemed to change so drastically. Dipper glanced around, as though trying to remember something important.

"I—I dunno. I just…" he trailed off, not sure of himself.

"Your stuff is already here, though, right? Why can’t you just stay?"

Norman couldn’t help his heart racing in his chest, but he tried to stay calm as he explained that it might be strange for him if he didn’t remember him well enough.

"Well, if you’re my friend, I trust you, man. I can’t go against my  _own_  judgment, right?” Dipper said with a smile.

He had a point. Even if he didn’t remember that they were friends, he was aware that they  _were_  and that was good enough for him.

He felt a small, very small, grin creep onto his face, and Mabel gave Norman a hopeful look, like she was sure everything was going to be okay.

They all settled down and went to bed silently, unlike ever before. Norman stared up at the ceiling, listening to the wind outside, trying to keep his mind blank. Mabel looked like she had fallen asleep the second her head hit the pillow.

How do people even do that? Norman couldn’t help but glance back and forth at the twins before returning his gaze to the ceiling.

Dipper laid on his side, facing the wall, trying to appear like he was sleeping, at least long enough for the other two to actually fall asleep.

But he kept hearing every shift Norman made, and he bit his lip before flipping over. Turning on his other side, he found Norman staring right at him. For a moment, they both paused, but then immediately looked away.

"S-sorry," Norman told him in a hushed tone. He had thought Dipper was asleep.

Dipper glanced back at him,

"It’s alright," he told him. It was his fault for looking at him in the first place. He knew he wasn’t asleep, but he felt the urge to turn and look anyway…

Their eyes eventually met again, but this time, Dipper didn’t bother looking away. It was odd, trying to sleep in a room with two strangers, even though he was apparently so close to them. Mabel was weird, but it didn’t surprise him, somehow. And Norman…

He blinked. There was something about Norman that just made everything else feel completely…unworthy of his attention, almost. He wasn’t sure what that was, but it was there. Norman was obviously very important, he just really wish he knew why…

"Uhh…" Norman had shifted around again, lying more on his side, still looking up at Dipper.

"Is something—uhh, is everything, like, okay? Or…uhm—"

"I’m just trying to remember something," Dipper told him with a small smile. Norman smiled back,

"What are you trying to remember?"

Dipper paused, before glancing over at his sister and then across the room.

"Well…at the moment," he replied, "You."

Norman blinked, and he could just feel all the blood rushing to his head. Why was it that knowing Dipper was thinking about him made him feel like this? Not that it felt bad.

“Uhm, w-what exactly are you… uhh… trying to remember?” he asked, his face feeling exceptionally warm.

Dipper finally looked away again, pulling his blanket up over his arms.

“It’s…” he paused, not really sure what to say, “I guess I’m just trying to figure out who you are, or something. To me, I mean.”

Norman stared at Dipper, hoping for more of an explanation, but it never came. What did he mean? Who he was?

The two continued for about an hour, just mindlessly talking back and forth, with long periods of silence throughout. Norman kept catching himself dozing off, and he rubbed his eyes to keep himself awake. Dipper didn’t try so hard, however.

“Dipper?” Norman whispered. After a moment of no reply, he titled his head to see Dipper’s face more clearly. Even in the dark, he could see that Dipper had finally fallen asleep. He sighed quietly to himself and laid back to gaze up at the ceiling again.

It was strange, everything that had happened that day. He honestly wouldn’t have thought that Dipper would forget who he was when he woke up this morning. He was going to have to do something about all this. He was going to have to make it better. Even if Dipper never remembered him, he needed him to remember Mabel. And their Grunkle Stan. And Wendy. Everybody. He didn’t have to remember him. If there was some way to do that, then he’d do it. He knew he would.

He heard someone groaning loudly and the sound stirred him awake. He immediately shot up, unaware he had fallen asleep. He looked over at Dipper, who was sitting up and clutching at his head in pain. Norman slipped out of the sleeping bag and over to Dipper’s bed in a flash.

“Wha—Dipper? Are you okay?” he asked, his voice cracking.

Dipper opened one eye to look over at Norman.

“My head. It feels like… like somebody dropped a piano on me or something,” he groaned, rubbing at his forehead.

Norman frowned, not knowing what to do.

“What?” Dipper asked, obviously noting the look of pure dread on Norman’s face.

“I was just kidding, geez…” he remarked, finally opening both eyes.

“Seriously, what’s wrong, Norman? You look the same as when you let Mabel talk you into letting her braid your hair. What’s up?”

Norman just stared at Dipper for a moment, before asking,

“Wait, you remember that?”

Dipper blinked,

“Uhh, yeah, it was only, like, a week ago.”

He was probably going to regret it later, but Norman hastily hugged Dipper so fast that the boy didn’t know how to react.

“Uhh, N-norman, what are you—“ he stopped once he realized his sister had woken up, as well. She stretched and looked over at the boys, almost instantly jumping off her bed to see what was happening.

Norman refuses to let go, and the smile on his face is hidden in Dipper’s shirt, but he couldn’t care less about that right now.

“What’s going on?” Mabel asked, that hopefulness in her voice. Dipper shrugs, trying to push Norman away, but failing due to his noodle arms.

“He looked at me all weird and I said that it made me think of that time when you braided his hair, you know, with those weird beads and stuff, too? And now, he’s suddenly hugging me, and—“

He was cut off by Mabel gasping and rushing to hug him tighter than Norman already was.

“Okay, SERIOUSLY, you guys! What are you doing?!” he shouts, completely confused.

“Oh, my god, you remember! Oh, Dippy, you’re okay!” Mabel smiled so wide, it was a wonder if it wasn’t painful, “I was so scared yesterday, and I had no idea what happened, but that doesn’t matter ‘cause you’re okay! Oh, God, you’re okay! YOU’RE OKAY!”

She squeezed him tighter, and Norman finally let go, looking up at Dipper with a big smile that Dipper swore he’d never even seen before. He blinked.

“Okay, I missed something,” Dipper muttered, looking straight at Norman.

Mabel and Norman both laughed, but Mabel just continued to snuggle against her twin brother like nothing else could possibly matter. Dipper finally just rolled his eyes,

“Geez, you guys are weird.”

—


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parapines Easter Drabble  
> Okay so, my grandparents always used to do easter egg hunts where they’d hide eggs all over the yard and the older you were, the duller the color of your eggs and the harder you had to look for them, and each egg had change in the amount of a dollar and one would have a riddle you had to solve to figure out to find where your prize was (one year, they hid a big box of chalk in the oven, another they hid a new bike on the freakin roof)  
> So i just wrote this because they don’t really do that much anymore because my cousins get bored quickly and my nephew is too young to really appreciate the process, but at least i can let my fave characters enjoy it (and because people have been asking for more parapines forever now), maybe with some cute romance thrown in~~

 

“Ten arcade coins, fourteen jellybeans, and a post-it note…” Dipper scrunched up his nose as he set out his findings next to his opened, plastic eggs on the porch, trying not to look over at his sister’s enormous stack of marshmallow peeps and faceful of jellybeans (no, she was literally licking them and sticking them to her face). He pulled a face and unfolded the note, flipping it around to read the mysterious riddle written on it in barely-legible blue ink.  
“If you relax in this spot, you’ll never find your next clue,” he read it aloud under his breath. “Maybe you should let someone else kick up their feet for you.”  
He let the riddle bounce around in his head a moment before it hit him.  
The living room.   
Dipper hoisted himself up onto the porch and ran inside, heading towards the ugly, carpeted inner room. Grunkle Stan was already sitting leisurely in his recliner, TV on and remote in hand.  
Dipper wasted no time and quickly walked up and pulled on the metal lever on the side of the chair. Grunkle Stan let out an unmanly yelp of surprise as his feet suddenly went up in the air and his chair reclined.  
Dipper knelt down and looked around under the recliner, seeing nothing but lint and some gross, moldy food he was certain he didn’t want to touch.  
Making a face, he backed away, but as he did, he glanced up and saw another post-it stuck to the underside of the footrest.  
He grabbed it and pushed himself up on his feet again, reading the new riddle.  
“A rush of wind will guide you to your next clue. Be sure to aim high, the feat might surprise you.”  
Dipper looked around, ignoring his grunkle’s grunts of complaint. His eyes soon landed on the ceiling fan overhead.  
He bent his knees and jumped up, just barely taking hold of the small, metal chain to turn on the fan.  
The dusty blades slowly started to move, and as they picked up speed, a small paper airplane took off from the top of one of them, aiming right for the kitchen. Dipper watched it fly out of sight and ran after it.  
He dashed inside the kitchen to see the plane crash into the wall next to the calendar. The calendar had a post-it sticking to it.  
He stepped over and reached up to grab it, reading his next clue.  
“Beneath the trusty keeper of moments gone by lies your final clue. In the room shared with another, it will be waiting for you.”  
Dipper furrowed his eyebrows, but knew where to start looking. He rushed back towards the pull-down staircase that let to the attic. He opened the door and walked inside, scrutinizing every single thing he saw.  
Where was the last clue?   
He walked to the middle of the room and looked down at the note again.  
“Trusty keeper of…moments gone by…?” He read aloud.  
He looked up and turned around, facing his alarm clock. That was it!  
He grinned, proud of himself for figuring it out, and stepped over to the nightstand, snatching up his alarm clock and turning it over. Sure enough, there was the last post-it note.  
He plucked it off and then set his clock back in its proper place before reading,  
“It’s not unreachable, but to some, it’s unknown. Just know I’ll be waiting, and with pinecones.”  
Dipper smiled. The secret roof.  
He ran back downstairs, past his still-complaining great-uncle, past the crashed paper plane in the kitchen, out the front door and past his sister and her colorful peeps, and then towards the Shack. Without looking up, he rushed inside the building, skipped every other step as he made his way to the roof, and finally lifted open the window to get to the roof. He pulled himself through and stood up, laughing at how out-of-breath he was as he immediately recognized the ridiculous hair and red hoodie of the guy sitting on the ledge, waiting for him.  
Norman turned around, giving him a small smile.  
“That was fast,” he remarked in his ever-quiet voice.  
Dipper felt himself flush a bit as he walked forward, finding a seat at Norman’s side.  
“I can’t resist a good puzzle,” Dipper replied, turning to return a smile in the other’s direction. “But I guess you already knew that.”  
“I thought you’d appreciate it,” Norman laughed, turning back to look out at the pastel blue sky over Gravity Falls. Dipper followed his gaze and it grew silent.  
Dipper leaned back on his hands, his mouth going dry.  
“When’d you get here?” He finally asked.  
Norman smiled again, replying quietly,  
“We just flew in this morning.”  
Dipper lifted an eyebrow, confused.  
“But, then…how did you—?”  
“Mabel helped,” Norman told him, glancing over at him with a strange look in his eyes that made Dipper realize he could hear his own heart beating in his ears.  
“It’s—” Dipper choked on his dry tongue. “I’m so glad you’re here.”  
Norman’s smile grew instantly and Dipper couldn’t have asked for anything more. Best Easter ever.  
“You know,” Norman spoke up, and Dipper blinked, suddenly realizing that he was sitting closer now, “I think I have one more riddle for you to solve.”  
“Oh, yeah?” Dipper was intrigued.  
“It goes something like…” Norman moved his hand animatedly, looking right at Dipper as he spoke, “give me one and it’s rude, give me two and it’s bliss.”  
Norman leaned back on his free arm and pushed his hand against Dipper’s, continuing,  
“But no matter what you choose, don’t make me wait for this…”  
Dipper felt the warm breath between them, and stared down at Norman’s barely opened lips.  
Pushing away the analytical thoughts rushing through his mind, he sucked in a breath and dipped his head forward, just softly pushing against those lips with his own.  
The feeling he received almost instantly after was hard to describe. At first, it was just an awkward moment of his brain panicking and shouting at him about germs or something, but when he let his eyes slide closed, a rush of warmth seemed to radiate from his center to his whole body.   
After what felt like barely a second, his lips broke apart from Norman’s and his eyes blinked open to see a crooked grin on his friend’s face.  
He took it back. NOW it was the best Easter ever.  
Dipper grinned back at him before glancing back at the window and leaned back again, musing,  
“You don’t think my sister put any cameras up here or anything, do you?”  
Norman chuckled, but he never answered the question.

* * *

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Movie Night

Mabel had fallen asleep first.

Dipper hadn't been surprised, knowing his sister couldn't stay awake past 11, even with all the sugar running through her blood. She was out cold. Which meant he needed to find those old magic markers and get to work.

Norman simply stared at the TV screen as Dipper quietly ran in and out of the room, obviously looking for something. He must have found it eventually, because he crept back into the dark living room, illuminated only by the movie playing on the TV, the moonlight streaming in the window, and the dim light creeping under the door from the kitchen. He heard Dipper snicker to himself before he finally became interested enough to look. Dipper had drawn all over Mabel's unconscious face with a green marker.

"What are you doing?" Norman asked in a hushed tone.

He leaned over to see better as Dipper leaned back to present his masterpiece with a smirk. Unfortunately, that resulted in the boys being much closer to each other than anticipated, which resulted in the flushed reaction both of them portrayed the second they were facing each other, their faces merely inches apart.

Norman froze while Dipper backed away, nearly marking himself with the green marker in his shaky hand.

"S-sorry," Norman quickly squeaked out as his gaze traveled to the floor. Dipper's face just proceeded to turn a deeper shade of red as he watched Norman nervously fumble with words and keep his eyes down.

"Th-that wasn't— I mean, I didn't—" He eventually gave up on the words and crawled back to his spot in front of the couch, still keeping his eyes down.

Dipper just sighed, likely for more reasons than he was willing to admit. He placed the cap back on the marker, and glanced again at Norman.

Suddenly, a loud scream from the movie made them both look up, startled. They both glanced at each other for a moment before it grew silent again. But then, Mabel mumbled something in her sleep about making Waddles wear a top hat, and both the boys broke in giggles. Dipper smiled, knowing his sister had saved him from yet another awkward moment. Someday, he should probably thank her for that.

But today, he was gonna color on her face.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mabel's Gift   
> (just posting this here instead of as a one-shot by itself)

It was time to go.

The summer was finally coming to an end. And, no matter how much they all disliked it, Norman had to go back home. His parents honestly still believed he had attended some fancy summer camp, but now, they were only miles away, coming to take him back to the bitterly cold town of Blithe Hollow again.

Norman glanced down at his cell phone, having received another text from his mom. They were minutes away, and couldn't wait to see him, apparently. He sighed.

It wasn't like he hadn't missed his family; it was that he really didn't want to leave Gravity Falls. He had made such great friends with the Pines twins and became so familiar with this crazy town, it was going to be difficult to actually up and leave.

"Well," Dipper spoke up, after minutes of pure silence, "we'll see you again next summer, right?"

Norman turned around, facing Dipper, and noticing that Mabel was digging around under her bed. By now, it didn't seem strange at all, and he simply ignored her and replied,

"I hope so. I'll have to find some way to convince my parents to let me come all the way out here again, though."

He pocketed his cell phone, looking down at his shoes.

Dipper sighed loudly, crossing his arms over his chest, and sitting on the edge of his bed, remarking,

"Well, if you could get here for free, I'm sure they wouldn't mind much at all."

Norman nodded, because it was probably true. His parents had texted him all summer about how well everyone was doing; his dad got promoted at work, his sister made head cheerleader after tryouts, and his mom was finally weaned off her meds. They seemed to be doing great without him there.

But Dipper seemed to know that, apparently.

Norman stepped back, sitting on his suitcase, and putting his head in his hands. He'd known the twins for only a few months, but he really didn't feel ready to say goodbye.

"AHA!"

Dipper and Norman both looked back at Mabel and she pulled a cardboard box out from under her bed.

"Geez, I thought I lost these! And that'd be TERRIBLE!" she exclaimed to no one in particular. She opened the old box to pull out two gifts. They looked like blankets covered in cheesy Christmas wrapping paper.

With a big smile on her faced, she skipped across the room, shoving a gift into each of the boys' hands. Dipper gave his sister a look, obviously wondering what she was up to, but she was too focused on watching Norman.

"Go on! Open it! You gotta open it before you leave, ya know!" she told him. He glanced up at her, obviously completely dumbfounded. Since when do people give gifts for no reason?

"Uhh, y-you didn't have to, uhm—"

"JUST OPEN IT ALREADY!" Mabel jumped up and down, her anticipation obviously getting the best of her.

"Chill, Mabel," Dipper told her, standing up to come up next to her.

"What's with the gifts, anyway? What even are these?" he asked, poking at the wrapping paper.

Mabel quickly turned on her heel, saying,

"It's a secret 'til you open them! Now, hurry up already! Norman's parents will be here any minute!"

The last comment didn't necessarily cheer up the mood of the room, but Norman glanced at Dipper and they locked eyes for a second.

"Alright, alright. Just open it before she flips out, okay?" Dipper told him, flipping his own gift over to remove the wrapping. Norman shrugged and did the same, slowly pulling the wrapping paper away to see something soft and red. He pulled it away from the paper. It was a sweater.

Again, he was dumbfounded. This was really neat of Mabel to do, actually. He unfolded it, reading the front embroidery.

Mabel grinned widely,

"Do you like it? I worked super hard on them! And in secret, too!"

She looked over at her brother, who had just pulled out a blue sweater that looked just like Norman's.

"I had to keep my special sewing machine under that loose floorboard under my bed, and I had to measure your neck sizes while you guys were sleeping so that the collars would fit just right!"

Both Norman and Dipper looked at each other and then at Mabel, trying not to be creeped-out as she continued to talk and talk about all the work she put into these gifts.

"And the ghost design on yours, Dippy," she turned to him, pointing at the sweater he was holding his hands, "That took me FIVE DAYS. FIVE DAYS to make some itty bitty ghost! I mean, it only took me a day ta think of what design to put there! But, hey, Norman's super cool and talks to ghosts, so I thought, hey! A ghost!"

Dipper rolled his eyes, looking at the sweater in his hands. The blunt message of "I 3 Norman" plastered on the front made his face heat up, and he tried to hide it as Mabel continued to ramble on, speaking as quickly as possible.

"Obviously, I had to put the constellation on yours, Norman, 'cause everybody knows that's how Dipper got his nickname!"

Norman looked up at her, somewhat confused,

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, duh! Hasn't Dipper shown you his birthmar—"

Suddenly, a hand gripped over her mouth, and Dipper laughed nervously,

"Don't—uhh, don't listen to her, she's just, you know, she's gonna hate to see you go today, and she's just being annoying, as usual, and—"

"Mmmphmmpph mmppphhhh!" Mabel exclaimed, glaring at her brother playfully.

Norman looked back and forth between the twins, finally blurting out,

"You have a birthmark?"

Mabel started giggling and Dipper dropped his hand, sighing.

Norman gazed back at his shoes,

"Y-you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I understand…"

Dipper glared in warning at Mabel as she muffled her giggles behind her hands. He took a breath, and looked back at Norman,

"If I show you, don't laugh like I KNOW Mabel will, okay?"

Norman glanced back up,

"Uhm, sure, okay," he told him, not really sure why it'd be so funny.

Dipper took off his hat, sitting down again, and rolled his eyes at his sister as he lifted his bangs.

Norman couldn't help it as a grin crept across his face.

"That would…explain a lot," he told him, trying not to smile.

"You can't laugh!" Dipper remarked. But just as he did, Mabel burst into a fit of giggles.

"Y-y-you have the weirdest birthmark! Hahaha! Oh, my gosh! Haha! It's like, it's like, you got a constellation, how weird is that? I mean, that's cool, but holy cow, that's funny!"

Mabel fell to her knees, holding her stomach as she continued to laugh heartily.

Norman smiled at Dipper, and he smiled back,

"It is pretty cool," he told Dipper.

Mabel bit back her laughter and grinned.

"Awww, look at youuuu!" she teased, pulling the two into a big hug. Dipper pulled away and out of her grasp, leaving her to just cuddle a completely confused Norman.

"Seriously, Mabel? What is wrong with you—" Dipper stopped and glared at her as she continued to blatantly snuggle poor Norman to her face.

"Stop DOING that!" he snarled, pulling Norman out of her grasp.

Mabel just smirked even more, and Dipper rolled his eyes at her.

"Make sure you use that sweater, Norman!" Mabel suddenly changed topics, and he blinked to focus back on her.

"I know Dipper hates wearing the sweaters I make, that's why I put your name on his this time!" she said, her smile never fading.

Norman felt himself smiling again. It's true, he really wasn't ready to say goodbye. But, hey, at least he wouldn't have to be cold this winter.


End file.
